RFP_Expanded Study on Crime and PovertyMasterpiece on the Mississippi
Dubuque
All-America City
1
2007
TO: The Honorable Mayor and City Council Members
FROM: Michael C. Van Milligen, City Manager
SUBJECT: Request for Proposals to Conduct Expanded Study on Crime and Poverty
DATE: February 24, 2010
Human Rights Director Kelly Larson recommends City Council approval to issue a
Request for Proposal to conduct an expanded study on crime and poverty. This
proposal specifically includes recommendations from the Safe Community Task Force
that the City Council adopted on February 1, 2010.
concur with the recommendation and respectfully request Mayor and City Council
approval.
MCVM:jh
Attachment
cc: Barry Lindahl, City Attorney
Cindy Steinhauser, Assistant City Manager
Kelly Larson, Human Rights Director
Michael C. Van Milligen
Masterpiece on the Mississippi
February 22, 2010
Dubuque
keitti
AllAmedcaClfy
11111 !
2007
TO: Michael Van Milligen, City Manager
FROM: Kelly Larson, Human Rights Director
SUBJECT: Request for Proposals to Conduct Expanded Study on Crime and Poverty
The purpose of this memorandum is to forward to the City Council a Request for
Proposals to conduct an expanded study on crime and poverty. This proposal
specifically includes recommendations from the Safe Community Task Force that the
City Council adopted on February 1, 2010.
Background
During the fall of 2009, the Housing and Community Development Department worked
with Alta Vista Research to conduct a limited study on crime and Section 8 housing. On
December 7, 2009, following a presentation describing the limitations of the study, the
City Council allocated $14,000 to conduct an expanded study. Staff then began to
develop a Request for Proposals for this expanded study.
In the meantime, the Safe Community Task Force, through its Research subcommittee,
began investigating both the limitations of the earlier study and the need for additional
research to satisfy the goals of the Safe Community Task Force. Ultimately, the
Research subcommittee brought forth the following recommendation to the entire Safe
Community Task Force, who agreed to forward the recommendation to the City Council.
This recommendation, adopted by the City Council on February 1, was to:
Conduct an expanded crime study to include:
a. Comparisons with like communities;
b. Longitudinal study of changes in crime rates;
c. Multivariate study of arrest records;
d. Comparison of actual crime profile in Dubuque with public perception;
e. Contextualizing research findings within current criminology and policy
literature;
f. Evidence -based recommendations for effective policy and programming
related to crime prevention and community safety within the discussion
section of the research report.
Staff has now combined the recommendations from the Safe Community Task Force
with some of the earlier recommendations related to Section 8, to create the attached
Request for Proposals. The attached request is for a study that, while it includes some
Section 8 components, focuses more broadly on crime and poverty in general. Staff
has asked Urban Strategies, who was recently hired to facilitate the Task Force, to
review the request. Urban Strategies concurs that this is a well designed RFP that will
yield valuable information for the Task Force. Staff also shared the RFP and our
anticipated timeline with the research subcommittee of the Task Force, who is anxious
to see this study move forward.
Budget Implications
The City Council has allocated $14,000 for this study.
Action Requested
The action requested is that you seek City Council approval to release this Request for
Proposals.
INTRODUCTION
In order to implement evidence -based practice in policymaking in Dubuque, the
City of Dubuque is seeking proposals from qualified professionals to conduct a
study of local crime and the community's perception of crime.
BACKGROUND
Community members have expressed concerns about crime in Dubuque. Some
community members have specifically related their perception of increased crime
to Section 8 housing in particular. This study would help clarify the actual state
of crime in Dubuque and the characteristics most strongly related to those sorts
of crimes that have increased significantly in the past few years, and it would
compare these data with the public's perception of the nature of crime and
criminals in Dubuque. The findings from the study would help guide
policymakers as they decide what preventative programming might effectively
prevent crime and what educational programming might provide the most useful
information to the citizens of Dubuque.
PROJECT SUMMARY /SCOPE OF WORK
General Research Questions
CITY OF DUBUQUE, IOWA
REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS
QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH STUDY
• Does the perception of criminal activity and its causes in Dubuque match
what is actually happening?
• Within categories of crime with significant increases in arrests, what
policies or strategies can effectively decrease crime?
• If there are cases where there are community perceptions of increased
criminal activity but no evidence to support the perception, what policies or
strategies can effectively address the concerns?
The City is requesting that this study include the following within their standard
steps in designing, conducting, and presenting their research:
1. Review of Literature
The consultant should conduct a literature review that will allow the researcher to
contextualize the study and its findings within the existing body of research on
known indicators or trends in crime in midsized communities, perception of crime,
and effective prevention and community education efforts. Of specific interest is
a review of findings regarding:
• The relationship between the mobility of Section 8 housing vouchers and
crime displacement
• Effective strategies /policies for preventing crime displacement from one
community to another
• General relationships between Section 8 housing and crime
• Effective strategies /policies for preventing crime related to Section 8
housing in general
• Contributing factors to perception of increased crime
• Effective strategies /policies to alleviate perception of crime
• General causes of crime in midsized communities
• General effective strategies /policies for preventing crime in midsized
communities
2. Quantitative Analysis
The quantitative study will consist of three parts. The following suggested paths
of study indicate they type of data available to the researchers and the areas the
City is interested in studying. In responding to the RFP, the researchers should
specifically explain the scope and proposed methodologies. The proposed
methodology will be reviewed by the City of Dubuque and the Safe Community
Task Force. The researchers also should identify any portion of the request that
appears to be incomplete based upon their expertise.
• Part One will analyze the Uniform Crime Reports from the City of Dubuque
sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigations since 2002, when the Police
Department's current computerized data tracking system was
implemented. The 2009 data can be obtained from the Dubuque Police
Department since it has not been published yet by the FBI. The study will
determine if there have been statistically significant increases in particular
sorts of crimes. Reports on categories of crime not submitted to the FBI
could be obtained through the Dubuque Police Department. A
comparison with like -sized communities in Iowa should also be included.
• Part Two will analyze the arrest reports of those areas of crime that Part
One indicated showed a significant increase in the recent past. This will
be a multivariate analysis. This analysis will determine if there are
correlations between the sorts of crimes committed and the demographic
and other categories on arrest reports and the strength of the relationships
that do exist. This analysis needs to include a study of addresses in
order to explore geographic relationships and to explore relationships to
income status by cross - referencing addresses with known Section 8
housing units. This portion of the study will need to be conducted from
approximately 2005 forward, when the Housing Department's current
computerized data tracking system was implemented.
• Part Three will be a perception study of a randomized sample of the
residents of Dubuque. Researchers should collect demographic data
about participants to help determine which sorts of persons have certain
concerns. The study needs to explore participants' perceptions of
increases or decreases in crime, of rates of particular sorts of crimes, and
of what is causing crime in Dubuque. Categories in the perception study
ought to match official categories of reported crimes and categories on
arrest reports. Again, this study should also explore perceptions about the
relationship between crime and income and crime and Section 8 housing.
• The final analysis will explore how the perceptions gathered in Part Three
compare with the findings of Parts One and Two.
3. Discussion and Recommendations
The discussion of the findings should be contextualized within current relevant
literature. It should:
• Clearly identify research findings.
• Clearly identify limitations of the study.
• Provide policy and program recommendations that follow from the
findings. These recommendations should address options for effective
crime prevention, possibly including improvement options in programs like
Section 8 that might affect crime rates, and options for effective
community education about crime.
The City is open to suggestions other than those listed in this proposal, which
consultants believe would be of value to meeting the City's objective.
QUALIFICATIONS
A professional consultant experienced in these fields of research will be retained
by the City to conduct the above - described work. The selected consultant must
have the requisite experience and training and have performed similar work for
other clients.
INFORMATION TO BE INCLUDED IN PROPOSAL
The proposal shall include the following information and shall be organized in the
manner specified as follows:
1. Letter of Transmittal
Provide a letter of transmittal briefly outlining the consultant's
understanding of the work and the consultant's name, address, telephone
number and e-mail address.
2. Profile of the Consultant
Provide general information about the consultant's experience and
expertise in the areas of work as specified. Provide three references of
past clients for whom similar projects were completed in the past five
years.
3. Proposed Project Schedule
The City anticipates that this contract will be awarded in early April 2010
and requires that this study be conducted and the final report issued by no
later than June 15, 2010. The City also asks that, to the extent feasible,
the Part I and Part II data analysis described above, along with evidence -
based policy recommendations, be provided by May 15, 2010. Discuss
the consultant's ability to meet this timeline and to integrate this contract
into the consultant's present workload.
4. Scope of Services
Include a detailed scope of services addressing the project
summary/scope of work described above. Describe the consultant's
proposed work plan and approach to the project.
5. Fees and Compensation
Provide a cost budget for completion of the proposed scope of services
with cost breakdowns. Please separate the proposed budget from the
other portion of the RFP submittal. (Initial screening will be done without
knowledge of the consultant's proposed fee for services.)
6. Certificate of Insurance
The selected firm will be required to meet the City's insurance
requirements for professional services.
7. Professional Services Agreement
Include a copy of the standard contract or professional services
agreement the consultant typically uses for similar projects.
EVALUATION CRITERIA
Proposals will be screened to ensure that they meet the minimum requirements
of the proposal format. A review of the qualifying proposals will be conducted by
the selection committee. Consultants may be invited to an interview with the
selection committee. Evaluation criteria will include the following:
• Qualifications and experience of the consultant
• Completion of similar projects in communities with characteristics similar
to Dubuque
• Grasp of the project requirements, understanding of the project scope,
and the level of interest demonstrated by the consultant.
• Clarity of the proposal and proposed methodology
• Approach to communication
• Ability to adhere to project timeline
SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
One electronic copy of the proposal must be received in the office of the Housing
and Community Development Department, attention Department Director:
dharris(a�cityofdubuque.org, by 4:00 pm CDT on 2010. Any material
that must be mailed must also be received by that time and date: HCD
Department, 350 West 6 Street, Suite 312, Dubuque Iowa 52001.
Each consultant assumes full responsibility for delivery and deposit of the
completed proposal on or before the deadline. The City of Dubuque is not
responsible for any Toss or delay with respect to delivery of the proposals.
The City of Dubuque is not liable for any cost incurred during the preparation and
presentation of proposals by any consultants prior to the execution of an
agreement or contract, nor shall the City of Dubuque be liable for any costs
incurred by the consultants that are not specified in any contract.
All questions and correspondence regarding the RFP should be directed to the
HCD Department Director, David Harris, at: (563) 589 -4239;
dharris(c�citvofdubuque.orq.